Kimball Lake

I spent another couple days at the cottage, cleaning up. So far this year, I've removed

I spent this past week at the cottage, continuing my construction of a new dock. There weren't many other cottagers around, and the weather was (mostly) warm and sunny, so I got a fair bit accomplished.

This spring, the makeshift haul-out that I had installed two years ago finally decided to give me trouble. The float, an old boat fender, has folded in half, and the haul-out rope broke with the winter ice. It's time I put in a more permanent solution.

So, I bought a buoy, a length of anchor chain, and a few other odds and sods, and put together a proper haul-out buoy.

Fugawee is open for 2015.

I took a few days last week to drive up in my new Jetta and open the cottage. This trip was both a necessity and a test.

About a week ago, the ice finally left the lake, or so I am told. The weather is fine, and the time is right. It's time to open the cottage.

I've got a lot planned for this year at the cottage. This year, I hope to

The end of the 2014 cottaging season quickly approaches, about a month earlier this year than other years. The weather this year has been cold and wet, and I while I've spent a lot of time working on the cottage, I haven't really done much.

This past Victoria Day weekend, I finally opened the cottage. With the severe winter we've just been through I have been anxious to get up to the lake since March, and this was the weekend (of all weekends) to go up.

The cottage (now christened "Fugawee", in honour of my mother's favourite (and only) joke) withstood the winter with the grace of the mature beauty that it is.

Last week, I closed the cottage for the 2013 season.

Now that I have the cottage on Kimball Lake, I want to add some of the "comforts of home". I don't want high-tech, power-hungry, electro-gadgets; I simply want some conveniences that can be accomplished in a low-tech, low impact, almost "back woods" manner.

The Bad

• Carpenter ants
• Wood rot
• Fourty five years worth of broken and discarded furniture and boating equipment
• Bad weather